DOCSLIB.ORG

Notes on an Archipelagic Ethnography: Ships, Seas, and Islands of Relation in the Indian Ocean

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
Notes on an Archipelagic Ethnography: Ships, Seas, and Islands of Relation in the Indian Ocean Island Studies Journal, 16(1), 2021, 9-22 Notes on an archipelagic ethnography: Ships, seas, and islands of relation in the Indian Ocean Nidhi Mahajan University of California-Santa Cruz, USA [email protected] Abstract: This paper explores a mobile anthropological method, or what I call an archipelagic ethnography. This archipelagic ethnography focuses on relationality to think through not only islandness and archipelagoes—land, ship, and sea—but also considers relationality as a starting point for examining connections across space. Based on over ten years of ethnographic research among dhow sailors in the Indian Ocean, I argue that navigation, social interactions, notions of patronage, and protection alongside memories and histories of mobility draw together these multiple spaces across the Indian Ocean. Moving between dhows docked in port, on islands, and at sea, I elaborate on an archipelagic ethnographic method that is a mode of thinking relationally about different kinds of spaces and places. Taking relationality as a central point in thinking through relations between ship, land, and sea, I hope to think about the notion of society in relational terms as a starting point for an anthropological method that is attuned to both difference and connection. Keywords: anthropology, archipelagic, dhows, Indian Ocean, islands, relationality https://doi.org/10.24043/isj.147 • Received May 2020, accepted October 2020 © Island Studies Journal, 2021 Introduction: Anthropologist on board? A ship is a world unto itself, even if it is docked in port. I tried balancing myself on the narrow thirty-foot plank that led to the Sagar Sanpati, a wooden sailing vessel or dhow, moored at the jetty in Mombasa’s Old Port. Gingerly placing one foot in front of the other, inching forward slowly on the shuddering wooden plank, I turned around to look at Yunus, the dhow’s cook, who was helping me board the vessel for the first time. “Don’t look back, and definitely don’t look down!” he said, the plank shifting in the wind, my dupatta (scarf) flying over my eyes, blinding me. I tottered, almost lost my balance, cursed the fabric, and paused. Against the cook’s advice, I looked at the water rippling forty feet below. Yunus reached out to me and I quickly grabbed his hand. “I’m here, don’t worry,” he said, reassuringly. The captain who was watching from the deck yelled, “You know how to swim, right?” I nodded. “Good, because Yunus doesn’t! If you both go down, rescue him!” The rest of the crew, an audience of ten able seamen, laughed at the absurdity of this slow-moving spectacle. A woman boarding a dhow. That too, an Indian woman in Mombasa. A ship’s cook who can’t swim. I finally reached the end of the plank and lifted myself onto the ladder, the captain reaching out a hand to help me climb on 9 Nidhi Mahajan board, for the first time. “Asalaam aleikum, welcome,” Yusuf, the captain, said as I clumsily landed on the deck, readjusting my dupatta. Behind me, Yunus confidently drew himself up on to the vessel and laughed. An everyday movement for him, was a tightrope act for me. The dhow I had just boarded for the first time was a world whose boundaries were clearly circumscribed, one misstep carrying you from this world unto another. Yet, this seemingly enclosed world was filled with traces of another, more familiar one. The deck smelled industrial, of greasy diesel, suffused with the acrid, pungent smell of dried shark, an odor that wafted through the streets that lay beyond the port. The captain graciously led me to the cabin, instructing Yunus to make me a cup of tea—the code of hospitality not being forgotten even though I could sense Yusuf’s confusion. Who is this woman? How did the port authorities allow her in? And what does she want from us? I sipped on the masala chai that Yusuf offered me in a glass. It tasted just like the masala chai I had grown up drinking in Bombay. Inside the cabin lay a stack of DVDs of the latest Bollywood films. Here were traces of the familiar, in the strange. A ship, a floating space, is a world unto itself, but is always in relation with many others. This essay is an effort to examine the relations that bind ships to islands, and to the sea. I do so by not only tracing itineraries that crisscross across these spaces, but also through relationships, forms of social interaction, and sense memory that draw islands, oceans, and ships together. Focusing on the Indian Ocean, I argue that navigation, social interactions, notions of patronage, and protection alongside memories of histories of mobility draw together these different spaces. In doing so, I elaborate on an ethnographic mode of inquiry that is not only multi-sited, but archipelagic, that is able to simultaneously hold the particularity of spaces whilst drawing them in relation to each other. This archipelagic ethnographic method is a mode of thinking relationally about different kinds of spaces and places, opening pathways for thinking about the notion of society through relational terms as a starting point for methods in the social sciences. To highlight this relationality, in what follows, I share notes from long-term fieldwork that moves from the site of the dhow, or the ship, to different spaces across the Indian Ocean. While many of these sites are islands—islands of navigation, islands of danger, islands of protection, islands as ports of call—what draws them together is not simply their “islandness” but their relation to each other, to dhows, and to the Indian Ocean itself. This relationality is brought into being not only through material connections—of trade or people—but also of memory and histories of mobility across these spaces, an archipelagic ethnographic method being central to viewing these relationalities across ships, sea, and land. Ship, land, and sea in island studies Departing from older tropes of viewing the island as static, isolated, and insular, island studies scholars have looked to the island through the lens of relationality and “thinking with the archipelago” (Baldacchino, 2006; Braithwaite, 1999; DeLoughrey, 2007; Gilssant, 1997; Grydehøj et al., 2020; Pugh, 2013; Stratford, 2003; Stratford et al., 2011). Much of this work has been concerned with seeking out the form that this relationality might take—the assemblages, networks, mobilities, and worlds that islands are embedded in (Clark & Tsai, 2009; Hau’ofa, 2008; Steinberg, 2001). This connectivity and relationality does not “flatten” or take away from the uniqueness or islanded-ness of a space, but in fact accentuates the specific formation of each of these islands as places (Hay, 2006). 10 Island Studies Journal, 16(1), 2021, 9-22 One obvious vector of connection across island spaces is the sea. Island relationality has therefore been situated in the water, as well as through the vessels that move across it (Blum, 2013; Bremner, 2016; Pugh, 2016, 2018). Rather than viewing the seascape as the backdrop against which vessels move, and islands are situated, scholars have centered how the sea is a socially constructed space that shapes island relationality (Pugh, 2018; Steinberg, 2001; Steinberg & Peters, 2015), the concept of “aquapelago” resituating even environmental processes at the center of this relationality (Hayward, 2012). Relationality has emerged as a key concept by which ships, seas, and islands have been thought through. Nevertheless, as Jonathan Pugh (2016) has convincingly argued, although relationality has often been used as a heuristic device, oceans, ships, and islands, have most often been studied in isolation from one another. Bringing together literatures of island studies, ships, and the oceanic turn in the social sciences, he argues that “islands, oceans and ships should not always be reductively conceptualized in isolation, because they are often inextricably interwoven into complex, multifaceted and shifting arrays of relations and assemblages” (Pugh, 2016, p. 1041). In doing so, he turns our attention to Barbados’ Landship, a performance and welfare institution that gestures to the relationality of island, ship, and sea through a dance choreographed to invoke not only the sea, but also past mobilities through ships—whether the voyages of slave ships, the British Navy, or steam ships. For Pugh, the Landship as an institution acts as a metaphor for the relationality between island, sea, and ship, where neither one of these elements disappears into the other, but they each retain their particularity even as they come together. Pugh’s analysis of the Landship provides one avenue for exploring the relations that bind ship, island, and sea; it is a relationality that is performed, that imagines the sea and the ship on land, invoking a Barbadian past in the present. While these relationalities between land, ship, and sea are useful to think with, Pugh’s 2016 study is located on one island, on one performance. Building upon Pugh, how might anthropologists and other social scientists adopt an approach that is able to apprehend this relationality across multiple islands, vessels, and seascapes? What kind of methods can be employed to examine relationality across the sea, between islands, and the vessels that move between them? Building upon concepts like “thinking with the archipelago” (Pugh, 2016), anthropologists Nimführ and Otto (2020) suggest that island relationality be thought through the concept “islandscape.” The term itself was coined by Broodbank (2000, p. 21), who defined islandscape as an approach that situates an island in its connections to other islands, mainlands, and the sea, highlighting its multidimensionality and “human imprint.” Nimführ and Otto (2020) employ “islandscape” to redefine binaries such as isolation/relation and global/local, combining -scape and assemblage thinking in island studies.
Load more

Recommended publications
  • Islam in Kenya: the Khoja Ismilis
    INSTITUTE OF CURRENT VJORLD AFFAIRS DER- 31 & 32 November 26, 1954 Islam in Kenya c/o Barclays Bank Introduction Queeusway Nairobi, Kenya Mr. Walter S. Rogers (Delayed fr revl sl Institute of Current World Affairs 522 Fifth Avenue New York 36, New York Dear Mr. Roers: All over the continent of Africa, from Morocco and Egypt to Zanzibar, Cape Town and Nigeria, millions of eople respond each day to a ringing cry heard across half the world for 1300 years. La i.l.aha illa-'llah: Muhmmadun rasulm,'llh, There is no God but Allah and Muhammad is his Prophet By these words, Muslims declare their faith in the teachings of the Arabian Prophet. The religion was born in Arabia and the words of its declaration of faith are in Arabic, but Islam has been accepted by many peoples of various races, natioual- i tie s and religious back- grounds, includiu a diverse number iu Kenya. Iu this colony there are African, Indian, Arab, Somali, Comoriau and other Muslims---even a few Euglishmeu---aud they meet each Frlday for formal worship in mosques iu Nairobi, Mombasa, Lamu and Kisumu, in the African Resewves and across the arid wastes of the northern frontier desert. Considerable attention has been given to the role of Christianity in Kenya and elsewhere iu East Africa, Jamia (Sunni) Mosque, and rightly so. But it Nairobl is sometimes overlooked that another great mouo- theistic religiou is at work as well. Islam arose later iu history than Christianity, but it was firmly planted lu Kenya centuries before the first Christian missionaries stepped ashore at Mombasa.
    [Show full text]
  • The Migration of Indians to Eastern Africa: a Case Study of the Ismaili Community, 1866-1966
    University of Central Florida STARS Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2004-2019 2019 The Migration of Indians to Eastern Africa: A Case Study of the Ismaili Community, 1866-1966 Azizeddin Tejpar University of Central Florida Part of the African History Commons Find similar works at: https://stars.library.ucf.edu/etd University of Central Florida Libraries http://library.ucf.edu This Masters Thesis (Open Access) is brought to you for free and open access by STARS. It has been accepted for inclusion in Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2004-2019 by an authorized administrator of STARS. For more information, please contact [email protected]. STARS Citation Tejpar, Azizeddin, "The Migration of Indians to Eastern Africa: A Case Study of the Ismaili Community, 1866-1966" (2019). Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2004-2019. 6324. https://stars.library.ucf.edu/etd/6324 THE MIGRATION OF INDIANS TO EASTERN AFRICA: A CASE STUDY OF THE ISMAILI COMMUNITY, 1866-1966 by AZIZEDDIN TEJPAR B.A. Binghamton University 1971 A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts in the Department of History in the College of Arts and Humanities at the University of Central Florida Orlando, Florida Spring Term 2019 Major Professor: Yovanna Pineda © 2019 Azizeddin Tejpar ii ABSTRACT Much of the Ismaili settlement in Eastern Africa, together with several other immigrant communities of Indian origin, took place in the late nineteenth century and early twentieth centuries. This thesis argues that the primary mover of the migration were the edicts, or Farmans, of the Ismaili spiritual leader. They were instrumental in motivating Ismailis to go to East Africa.
    [Show full text]
  • The Role of Faith in the Charity and Development Sector in Karachi and Sindh, Pakistan
    Religions and Development Research Programme The Role of Faith in the Charity and Development Sector in Karachi and Sindh, Pakistan Nida Kirmani Research Fellow, Religions and Development Research Programme, International Development Department, University of Birmingham Sarah Zaidi Independent researcher Working Paper 50- 2010 Religions and Development Research Programme The Religions and Development Research Programme Consortium is an international research partnership that is exploring the relationships between several major world religions, development in low-income countries and poverty reduction. The programme is comprised of a series of comparative research projects that are addressing the following questions: z How do religious values and beliefs drive the actions and interactions of individuals and faith-based organisations? z How do religious values and beliefs and religious organisations influence the relationships between states and societies? z In what ways do faith communities interact with development actors and what are the outcomes with respect to the achievement of development goals? The research aims to provide knowledge and tools to enable dialogue between development partners and contribute to the achievement of development goals. We believe that our role as researchers is not to make judgements about the truth or desirability of particular values or beliefs, nor is it to urge a greater or lesser role for religion in achieving development objectives. Instead, our aim is to produce systematic and reliable knowledge and better understanding of the social world. The research focuses on four countries (India, Pakistan, Nigeria and Tanzania), enabling the research team to study most of the major world religions: Christianity, Islam, Hinduism, Sikhism, Buddhism and African traditional belief systems.
    [Show full text]
  • Varieties of South Asian Islam Francis Robinson Research Paper No.8
    Varieties of South Asian Islam Francis Robinson Research Paper No.8 Centre for Research September 1988 in Ethnic Relations University of Warwick Coventry CV4 7Al Francis Robinson is a Reader in History at the Royal Holloway and Bedford New College, University of London. For the past twenty years he has worked on Muslim politics and Islamic institutions in South Asia and is the author of many articles relating to these fields. His main books are: Separatism Among Indian Muslims: The Politics of the United Provinces' Muslims 1860-1923 (Cambridge, 1974); Atlas of the Islamic World since 1500 (Oxford, 1982); Islam in Modern South Asia (Cambridge, forthcoming); Islamic leadership in South Asia: The 'Ulama of Farangi Mahall from the seventeenth to the twentieth century (Cambridge, forthcoming). Varieties of South Asian Islam1 Over the past forty years Islamic movements and groups of South Asian origin have come to be established in Britain. They offer different ways, although not always markedly different ways, of being Muslim. Their relationships with each other are often extremely abrasive. Moreover, they can have significantly different attitudes to the state, in particular the non-Muslim state. An understanding of the origins and Islamic orientations of these movements and groups would seem to be of value in trying to make sense of their behaviour in British society. This paper will examine the following movements: the Deobandi, the Barelvi, the Ahl-i Hadith, the Tablighi Jamaat, the Jamaat-i Islami, the Ahmadiyya, and one which is unlikely to be distinguished in Britain by any particular name, but which represents a very important Islamic orientation, which we shall term the Modernist.2 It will also examine the following groups: Shias and Ismailis.
    [Show full text]
  • Hazara Tribe Next Slide Click Dark Blue Boxes to Advance to the Respective Tribe Or Clan
    Program for Culture & Conflict Studies www.nps.edu/programs/ccs Advance to Hazara Tribe next slide Click dark blue boxes to advance to the respective tribe or clan. Hazara Abak / Abaka Besud / Behsud / Basuti Allakah Bolgor Allaudin Bubak Bacha Shadi Chagai Baighazi Chahar Dasta / Urni Baiya / Baiyah Chula Kur Barat Dahla / Dai La Barbari Dai Barka Begal Dai Chopo Beguji / Bai Guji Dai Dehqo / Dehqan Reference: Courage Services Inc., Tribal Hierarchy & Dictionary of Afghanistan: A Reference Aid for Analysts, (February 2007). Adamec. Vol 6; Hazaras Poladi, 37; EE Bacon, P.20-31 Topography, Ethnology, Resources & History of Afghanistan. Part II. Calcutta:, 1871 (p. 628). Program for Culture & Conflict Studies www.nps.edu/programs/ccs Return to Advance to First slide Hazara Tribe next slide Hazara Dai Kundi / Deh Kundi Dayah Dai Mardah / Dahmarda Dayu Dai Mirak Deh Zengi Dai Mirkasha Di Meri / Dai Meri Dai Qozi Di Mirlas / Dai Mirlas Dai Zangi / Deh Zangi Di Nuri / Dai Nuri Daltamur Dinyari /Dinyar Damarda Dosti Darghun Faoladi Dastam Gadi / Gadai Reference: Courage Services Inc., Tribal Hierarchy & Dictionary of Afghanistan: A Reference Aid for Analysts, (February 2007). Adamec. Vol 6; Hazaras Poladi, 37; EE Bacon, P.20-31 Topography, Ethnology, Resources & History of Afghanistan. Part II. Calcutta:, 1871 (p. 628). Program for Culture & Conflict Studies www.nps.edu/programs/ccs Return to Advance to First slide Hazara Tribe next slide Hazara Gangsu Jaokar Garhi Kadelan Gavi / Gawi Kaghai Ghaznichi Kala Gudar Kala Nao Habash Kalak Hasht Khwaja Kalanzai Ihsanbaka Kalta Jaghatu Kamarda Jaghuri / Jaghori Kara Mali Reference: Courage Services Inc., Tribal Hierarchy & Dictionary of Afghanistan: A Reference Aid for Analysts, (February 2007).
    [Show full text]
  • RAILWAY PROTECTION FORCE MINISTRY of RAILWAYS Recruitment for the Post of Sub-Inspector (Male & Female) in RPF/RPSF
    RAILWAY PROTECTION FORCE MINISTRY OF RAILWAYS Recruitment for the post of Sub-Inspector (Male & Female) in RPF/RPSF LIST OF CANDIDATES PROVISIONALLY SELECTED FOR APPEARING IN MEDICAL EXAMINATION FOR THE POST OF SUB-INSPECTOR IN RPF/RPSF. In reference to employment notice No.2/2007 dated 15.09.2007 published in the Employment News/Rozgar Samachar and based on the performance of the candidates in the written examination and viva voce, the list of 1027 candidates (in ascending order of roll numbers) provisionally found successful for appearing in the Medical Examination for the post of Sub-Inspector in RPF/RPSF is declared as under: - MALE S.No. ROLL NAME 1 1200017 YOGENDRA KUMAR 2 1200022 ARUN KUMAR 3 1200087 RAJIV 4 1200102 RAKESH KUMAR 5 1200114 VIRENDER SINGH 6 1200127 OM PAL SINGH 7 1200165 UTTAM SHARMA 8 1200186 ANKUR TYAGI 9 1200210 SANDEEP 10 1200217 MAYANK CHOUDHARY 11 1200220 SANDEEP KUMAR PARASHAR 12 1200243 RAVI KUMAR GUPTA 13 1200319 GYAN PRAKASH 14 1200342 KAUSHLENDRA SINGH 15 1200375 JITENDRA SINGH PARIHAR 16 1200412 HARSH CHAUHAN 17 1200414 SURENDER 18 1200420 AJAY KUMAR S.No. ROLL NAME 19 1200425 PARMOD 20 1200426 HARDEEP KUMAR 21 1200429 SANDEEP 22 1200434 DEEPAK DHUHAN 23 1200553 VIKENDRA SINGH TANWAN 24 1200607 MANJEET SINGH RAWAT 25 1200721 ARVIND KUMAR 26 1200726 VIKAS ANTIL 27 1200752 AMIT KUMAR 28 1200768 SATVEER SINGH 29 1200792 MUKESH KUMAR SINGH 30 1200827 PRATAP BHAN SINGH 31 1200850 GYANENDRA KUMAR 32 1200869 MANJEET KUMAR 33 1200870 VIDHU TYAGI 34 1200890 VIPIN KUMAR 35 1200976 SACHIN KUMAR RATHI 36 1201081 DINESH KUMAR 37 1201156 SUNIL KUMAR 38 1201187 MONU KUMAR SHARMA 39 1201214 SURESH KUMAR 40 1201223 SURINDRA SINGH 41 1201264 PRABHAT CHAUDHARY 42 1201285 ASHOK KUMAR SHARMA 43 1201360 YEKRAM KUMAR 44 1201461 AMIT KUMAR 45 1201482 BRAMHA NAND TIWARI 46 1201495 AMIT MALIK 47 1201522 ARUN KUMAR 48 1201568 ARUN KUMAR 49 1201589 VINIT KUMAR 50 1201638 CHETAN PRAKASH 51 1201680 SANDEEP KUMAR S.No.
    [Show full text]
  • Ahtl-European STRUGGLE by the MAPPILAS of MALABAR 1498-1921 AD
    AHTl-EUROPEAn STRUGGLE BY THE MAPPILAS OF MALABAR 1498-1921 AD THESIS SUBMITTED FDR THE AWARD OF THE DEGREE DF Sactnr of pitilnsopliQ IN HISTORY BY Supervisor Co-supervisor PROF. TARIQ AHMAD DR. KUNHALI V. Centre of Advanced Study Professor Department of History Department of History Aligarh Muslim University University of Calicut Al.garh (INDIA) Kerala (INDIA) T6479 VEVICATEV TO MY FAMILY CONTENTS SUPERVISORS' CERTIFICATE ACKNOWLEDGEMENT LIST OF MAPS LIST OF APPENDICES ABBREVIATIONS Page No. INTRODUCTION 1-9 CHAPTER I ADVENT OF ISLAM IN KERALA 10-37 CHAPTER II ARAB TRADE BEFORE THE COMING OF THE PORTUGUESE 38-59 CHAPTER III ARRIVAL OF THE PORTUGUESE AND ITS IMPACT ON THE SOCIETY 60-103 CHAPTER IV THE STRUGGLE OF THE MAPPILAS AGAINST THE BRITISH RULE IN 19™ CENTURY 104-177 CHAPTER V THE KHILAFAT MOVEMENT 178-222 CONCLUSION 223-228 GLOSSARY 229-231 MAPS 232-238 BIBLIOGRAPHY 239-265 APPENDICES 266-304 CENTRE OF ADVANCED STUDY DEPARTMENT OF HISTORY ALIGARH MUSLIM UNIVERSITY ALIGARH - 202 002, INDIA CERTIFICATE This is to certify that the thesis "And - European Struggle by the Mappilas of Malabar 1498-1921 A.D." submitted for the award of the degree of Doctor of Philosophy of the Aligarh Muslim University, is a record of bonafide research carried out by Salahudheen O.P. under our supervision. No part of the thesis has been submitted for award of any degree before. Supervisor Co-Supervisor Prof. Tariq Ahmad Dr. Kunhali.V. Centre of Advanced Study Prof. Department of History Department of History University of Calicut A.M.U. Aligarh Kerala ACKNOWLEDGEMENT My earnest gratitude is due to many scholars teachers and friends for assisting me in this work.
    [Show full text]
  • Caste, Kinship and Sex Ratios in India
    NBER WORKING PAPER SERIES CASTE, KINSHIP AND SEX RATIOS IN INDIA Tanika Chakraborty Sukkoo Kim Working Paper 13828 http://www.nber.org/papers/w13828 NATIONAL BUREAU OF ECONOMIC RESEARCH 1050 Massachusetts Avenue Cambridge, MA 02138 March 2008 We thank Bob Pollak, Karen Norberg, David Rudner and seminar participants at the Work, Family and Public Policy workshop at Washington University for helpful comments and discussions. We also thank Lauren Matsunaga and Michael Scarpati for research assistance and Cassie Adcock and the staff of the South Asia Library at the University of Chicago for their generous assistance in data collection. We are also grateful to the Weidenbaum Center and Washington University (Faculty Research Grant) for research support. The views expressed herein are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Bureau of Economic Research. NBER working papers are circulated for discussion and comment purposes. They have not been peer- reviewed or been subject to the review by the NBER Board of Directors that accompanies official NBER publications. © 2008 by Tanika Chakraborty and Sukkoo Kim. All rights reserved. Short sections of text, not to exceed two paragraphs, may be quoted without explicit permission provided that full credit, including © notice, is given to the source. Caste, Kinship and Sex Ratios in India Tanika Chakraborty and Sukkoo Kim NBER Working Paper No. 13828 March 2008 JEL No. J12,N35,O17 ABSTRACT This paper explores the relationship between kinship institutions and sex ratios in India at the turn of the twentieth century. Since kinship rules varied by caste, language, religion and region, we construct sex-ratios by these categories at the district-level using data from the 1901 Census of India for Punjab (North), Bengal (East) and Madras (South).
    [Show full text]
  • Downloaded for Personal Non‐Commercial Research Or Study, Without Prior Permission Or Charge
    Goodman, Zoe (2018) Tales of the everyday city: geography and chronology in postcolonial Mombasa. PhD thesis. SOAS University of London. http://eprints.soas.ac.uk/30271 Copyright © and Moral Rights for this thesis are retained by the author and/or other copyright owners. A copy can be downloaded for personal non‐commercial research or study, without prior permission or charge. This thesis cannot be reproduced or quoted extensively from without first obtaining permission in writing from the copyright holder/s. The content must not be changed in any way or sold commercially in any format or medium without the formal permission of the copyright holders. When referring to this thesis, full bibliographic details including the author, title, awarding institution and date of the thesis must be given e.g. AUTHOR (year of submission) "Full thesis title", name of the School or Department, PhD Thesis, pagination. Tales of the everyday city: geography and chronology in postcolonial Mombasa Zoë Goodman Thesis submitted for the degree of PhD 2017 Department of Anthropology and Sociology SOAS, University of London Abstract Grounded in ethnographic research conducted amongst Mombasa‘s small and heterogeneous Muslim population with roots in what is today the Indian state of Gujarat, this thesis explores the mobilities, insecurities, notions of Islamic reform and patterns of claims-making that circulate in the city. These themes are examined through the lens of ‗everyday‘ discourse and practice, paying particular attention to the multiplicity of dispositions towards time and space that inform these broader urban processes. The thesis describes Mombasan Muslims struggling with history and with the future.
    [Show full text]
  • Identity and Difference in a Muslim Community in Central Gujarat, India Following the 2002 Communal Violence
    Identity and difference in a Muslim community in central Gujarat, India following the 2002 communal violence Carolyn M. Heitmeyer London School of Economics and Political Science PhD 1 UMI Number: U615304 All rights reserved INFORMATION TO ALL USERS The quality of this reproduction is dependent upon the quality of the copy submitted. In the unlikely event that the author did not send a complete manuscript and there are missing pages, these will be noted. Also, if material had to be removed, a note will indicate the deletion. Dissertation Publishing UMI U615304 Published by ProQuest LLC 2014. Copyright in the Dissertation held by the Author. Microform Edition © ProQuest LLC. All rights reserved. This work is protected against unauthorized copying under Title 17, United States Code. ProQuest LLC 789 East Eisenhower Parkway P.O. Box 1346 Ann Arbor, Ml 48106-1346 F Declaration I certify that the thesis I have presented for examination for the MPhil/PhD degree of the London School of Economics and Political Science is solely my own work other than where I have clearly indicated that it is the work of others (in which case the extent of any work carried out jointly by me and any other person is clearly identified in it). The copyright of this thesis rests with the author. Quotation from it is permitted, provided that full acknowledgement is made. This thesis may not be reproduced without the prior written consent of the author. I warrant that this authorization does not, to the best of my belief, infringe the rights of any third party.
    [Show full text]
  • The Arya Samaj in Gujarat 1895-1930
    1 Purifying the Nation: The Arya Samaj in Gujarat 1895-1930 David Hardiman Department of History, University of Warwick, Coventry CV4 7AL, UK [email protected] Tel: 02476572584 Fax: 02476523437 2 Abstract This article examines the impact of the Arya Samaj in Gujarat from 1895 to 1930. Although the founder of this body, Dayanand Saraswati, was from Gujarat, it proved less popular there initially than in the Punjab. The first important Arya Samajists in Gujarat were Punjabis, brought there by Sayajirao Gaekwad of Baroda to carry out educational work amongst untouchables. The Arya Samaj only became a mass organisation in Gujarat after a wave of conversions to Christianity in central Gujarat by untouchables, with Arya Samajists starting orphanages to ‘save’ orphans from the clutches of the Christian missionaries. The movement then made considerable headway in Gujarat. The main followers were from the urban middle classes, higher farming castes, and gentry of the Koli caste. Each had their own reasons for embracing the organisation, ranging from a desire for higher social status, to religious reform, to building caste unity, and as a means, in the case of the Koli gentry, to ‘reconvert’ Kolis who had adopted Islam in medieval times. The movement lost its momentum after Gandhi arrived on the political scene, and many erstwhile Arya Samajists embraced the Gandhian movement. When the Gandhian movement itself flagged after 1922, there was an upsurge in communal antagonism in Gujarat in which Arya Samajists played a provocative role. A riot in Godhra in 1928 is examined. 3 Over the past decade, Gujarat has come to be seen as a hotbed of communalism, ruled by a state government that has connived at, and even encouraged, murderous attacks on Muslims and Christians.
    [Show full text]
  • Naqshbandi Sufi, Persian Poet
    ABD AL-RAHMAN JAMI: “NAQSHBANDI SUFI, PERSIAN POET A Dissertation Presented in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirement for The Degree Doctor of Philosophy in the Graduate School of the Ohio State University By Farah Fatima Golparvaran Shadchehr, M.A. The Ohio State University 2008 Approved by Professor Stephen Dale, Advisor Professor Dick Davis Professor Joseph Zeidan ____________________ Advisor Graduate Program in History Copyright by Farah Shadchehr 2008 ABSTRACT The era of the Timurids, the dynasty that ruled Transoxiana, Iran, and Afghanistan from 1370 to 1506 had a profound cultural and artistic impact on the history of Central Asia, the Ottoman Empire, and Mughal India in the early modern era. While Timurid fine art such as miniature painting has been extensively studied, the literary production of the era has not been fully explored. Abd al-Rahman Jami (817/1414- 898/1492), the most renowned poet of the Timurids, is among those Timurid poets who have not been methodically studied in Iran and the West. Although, Jami was recognized by his contemporaries as a major authority in several disciplines, such as science, philosophy, astronomy, music, art, and most important of all poetry, he has yet not been entirely acknowledged in the post Timurid era. This dissertation highlights the significant contribution of Jami, the great poet and Sufi thinker of the fifteenth century, who is regarded as the last great classical poet of Persian literature. It discusses his influence on Persian literature, his central role in the Naqshbandi Order, and his input in clarifying Ibn Arabi's thought. Jami spent most of his life in Herat, the main center for artistic ability and aptitude in the fifteenth century; the city where Jami grew up, studied, flourished and produced a variety of prose and poetry.
    [Show full text]